Growth goes on for top 9 despite drop in S&P index

The S&P 500 stock index fell slightly last week, but the top nine teams in The Blade School Stock Contest saw their portfolios grow.

The portfolios of the top 10 teams have all grown more than 10 percent in the first seven weeks of the contest, and the portfolio of the top team, 1SHS from Springfield High School in Holland, has grown almost 18 percent. The top three teams have increased more than 15 percent.

Jennifer Hoel, a Springfield High teacher, has four teams in the top 10 and said her students are hopeful they can nab at least one of the three prize-winning spots. The members of 1SHS, 4SHS, THEHELP, and JD2T opted to keep their original portfolios intact and didn’t swap out any of their holdings during a one-time opportunity March 8.

“I don’t know if they’ve come to a conclusion as to what is propelling them,” Ms. Hoel said.

Ronald Belle, investment advisers executive and senior vice president at Fifth Third Bank, one of the contest sponsors, said the top teams chose their stocks wisely or made appropriate trades to maintain their edge.

“The teams who have achieved 10 percent or greater returns have done so through purchasing companies who are top performers in their respective sectors,” he wrote in a statement to The Blade. “Owning a diverse portfolio of companies that are industry leaders often outperform their peers during periods of strong market performance. That theory has held true for the teams who have achieved double-digit growth.”

1SHS has stock in Yahoo! Inc., Google Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and Best Buy Co. Inc., and its portfolio grew 3.6 percent in the week that ended Friday. It bumped Gulhaye, a team from Bowling Green High School, into second place.

The 115 teams in the event are from northwest Ohio and southern Michigan. They were given a hypothetical $40,000 budget, and the funds were allocated evenly among four stocks. The stocks initially were worth at least $5 a share.

Gulhaye’s portfolio includes Priceline.com Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., Abbott Laboratories, and Zillow Inc. It grew 1.88 percent last week and has grown 16.39 percent in seven weeks. It did not change its stock options during the switch earlier in the month.

The team’s members are keeping their cool because there is a long way to go in the 12-week competition, said Ron Nickey, who teaches Gulhaye in his practical money-skills class.

“They are pretty subdued about the issue because they know just like it can go up, it can go down,” Mr. Nickey said. “They’re just hopeful that Priceline, Southwest Airlines, and Abbott Laboratories sustains them.”

The contest ends April 26, and the team with the best-performing portfolio wins $250 for the students and $250 for the school. Second place will receive $250 for the school, and third place gets $100 for the school. The contest is sponsored by The Blade’s Newspaper in Education program, the Taylor Automotive Family, Fifth Third, and the University of Toledo, which calculates the results.

Fourth-place team CashFlo moved up a slot last week, growing 1.62 percent. The team has stock in Netflix Inc., Time Warner Inc., Marathon Petroleum Corp., and AMERCO, the parent company of U-Haul. It traded its stock in Visa Inc. for AMERCO on March 8.

Although the team has ranked in higher spots, its members are confident they can finish in a prize-winning position, said Amy Warnimont, who teaches CashFlo in her eighth-grade advanced math class.

“They’ve held on so well so far in the competition that it’s anybody’s game right now,” she said. “I definitely think they have a chance.”

Contact Kris Turner at: kturner@theblade.com or 419-724-6103.

Standings after Week 7 of The Blade School Stock Contest, with team name, school, and portfolio amount.